Mr. Burnham’s theme may be thus stated: The world crisis is acute, almost immediate. Its elements are the development of a global economy, the breakdown of the international political order, and the existence of atomic weapons. A world federation is essential, to prevent mass, total, world war.

Man’s noblest ideal is a world society of equals, the free, co-operative union of all mankind. A necessary stride towards that goal will be a genuine world government. But even that is not yet possible. There are only two real alternatives now. One is the conquest of the whole world by the communists, a World Federation of Soviet Republics. The other is a democratic world order, led by the United States and backed by the atomic bomb.

Unless the United States makes a sharp break with the past, Mr. Burnham concludes that it will continue to have no policy except the hopeless policy of vacillation. ‘It may be’, he writes, ‘that he darkness of great tragedy will bring to a quick end the short, bright history of the United States - for there is enough truth in the dream of the New World to make the action tragic. The United States is called before the rehearsals are completed. Its strength and promise have not been matured by the wisdom of time and suffering. And the summons is for nothing less than the leadership of the world, for that or nothing. If it is reasonable to expect failure, that is only a measure of how great the triumph could be.’

July 2021 Update:

There was no index in the original edition of the book. It has been added to this PDF in July, 2021.

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